Although the sport of Airsoft is not new, it has seen a tremendous increase in popularity over the past five or more years due to recent technological developments. Airsoft guns are now carried by major retail chains. One of the greatest lures to Airsoft is their realism. Other than a three-quarter inch orange muzzle mandated by law on the tip of Airsoft weapons, Airsoft weapons look and feel very much like their live ammunition, steel counterparts.
Proper handling, training, and transport are important where Airsoft safety is concerned and diligent promotion of safety habits is necessary for the future welfare of the Airsoft sport. Airsoft guns can fire rounds, typically small plastic BBs, traveling at speeds that may be exceeding 500 feet per second (fps) at a rate of 1200 rounds per minute (RPM). The initial effective range for most Airsoft guns is at least 150 feet. Consequently, missed shots may result in radically deflected ricochets that can present hazards to person and property.
Thus, it is highly desirable to provide an effective target trap that allows for flexibility of Airsoft weapons usage for training purposes and shooting sessions in controlled and safe environments. Traditional target traps designed for bullets have been around over a century. Because bullets are not re-usable, these traditional traps are constructed to not only trap the incoming bullets, but to absorb their kinetic energy by deforming the bullets against the backstops of the bullet traps. Pellets trap, similar to lead bullets targets, rely upon the deformation of the projectile upon impacting the backstop, with the newly flattened projectile being diverted into a capture area. Such bullet and pellet traps are not effective for Airsoft BBs, which do not deform upon impact with backstops of conventional bullet and pellet traps. Airsoft BBs typically will ricochet and potentially fragment against the backstops instead of deforming. A ricocheting Airsoft BB is more likely to escape the trap at high velocity, presenting a potential safety concern. Alternatively, ricocheting Airsoft BBs may collide with other Airsoft BBs previously captured in the trap, causing the Airsoft BBs to either escape the trap or to fragment into smaller projectiles that may vector in an unpredictable manner and escape the trap, making for an unsafe shooting environment.
A dedicated, self-enclosed target having a heavyweight fabric material as a backstop might be effective for lower velocity Airsoft guns. However, Airsoft gun velocity ranges in spectrum from lower end plastic Airsoft pistols shooting rounds at approximately 150 fps all the way up to hi-powered all metal Airsoft rifles shooting rounds at 600 fps. Indeed, with technological advances, it may be that even high round velocities will be reached in the future. A fabric backed Airsoft targets can only handle incoming BBs traveling velocities of 300-325 fps or lower. Many Airsoft gaming fields allow Airsoft weapons to fire up to 400 fps, making fabric-backed Airsoft targets not practical.
A cardboard backstop would address some of the problems discussed above, even with respect to higher velocity Airsoft projectiles. However, cardboard is quickly destroyed by the incoming Airsoft rounds. Thus, cardboard backstops require frequent replacement. Failure to timely replace a degraded cardboard backstop can create a risk of that the Airsoft round may penetrate through the trap and continue flight, creating a safety risk to persons and property located behind the trap. Also, frequent replacement of the cardboard backstop, in addition to being laborious, can be quite expensive.